Not Bad
by teddylupin-snape
Summary: Years had passed, and Lily still held strong to her friendship with Scorpius, which had grown into something more over the past few months. No one but the two of them knew, and that was how they liked it to be. / LilyScor for Kaia


It was the start of the Christmas holidays. Lily boarded the Hogwarts express after her first term at school, chatting lightheartedly with Scorpius Malfoy.

Her parents had warned her about him and his family—not directly, exactly, but she noticed the looks they gave him and his father. She recalled what her Uncle Ron had said before Al had started at Hogwarts—his warnings for Rose (and by Rose, she knew he also meant the others) to stay away from him, that he was bad news and nothing good to be hanging round.

Lily knew how close her parents were with her Uncle Ron, and knew that they held the same beliefs about her new friend. Granted, he was two years above her, but he was one of the first to accept her when she was sorted into Slytherin. She still hadn't told her parents that she hadn't followed their footsteps into their old house. James and Albus were in Gryffindor, wasn't that enough for them? Harry and Ginny had told her that they were fine with wherever she was sorted, but Lily had a feeling they wouldn't exactly be pleased.

As the great steam engine pulled into King's Cross Station, Lily pulled down her trunk from the rack in hers and Scorpius' compartment, taking off her Slytherin-coloured scarf and stowing it inside. She knew she'd have to tell them eventually, but she wasn't ready quite yet.

She bounded down the steps of the train after saying goodbye to Scorpius and wishing him a merry Christmas.

"Mum! Dad!" Lily exclaimed, catching sight of them, James and Albus having reached them first and standing on either side. "I've missed you," she murmured, hugging them both in turn.

"Al says you've got news for us," Ginny asked, smiling.

"Yeah, Lils, tell them where you got sorted," he said. His voice was far from snide, but Lily knew he was doing this to get back at her for her tattling on him for breaking into Harry's office over the summer. She had found him with her father's old Marauder's Map in his hand, muttering spell after spell to try to get it to work properly. At thirteen years old, he didn't have much magical experience—not nearly enough to get the enchanted map to function, so he sat for nearly an hour trying different versions of "Please just work."

"Later," Lily mumbled, not meeting her parents' eyes. She wasn't ashamed about her house, but she wasn't sure she was confident in it yet, either.

"Look, Lily. It doesn't matter to us. Every house has its good and bad qualities, none more than another. Wherever you were sorted was a wonderful choice for you, I'm sure of it. Now, let's get going, shall we?" Harry joined hands with Lily and Albus, who took Ginny's with James, and they disapparated.

x

Later that night, Harry met Lily in her room, taking a seat on her bed. "I'm really quite proud of my Slytherin daughter, you know that, don't you? I nearly made it into Slytherin, but I was too cowardly to go for it. Ended up in Gryffindor. Suppose the Sorting Hat mistook that cowardice for bravery, apparently."

Lily grinned.

"So, meet anyone friendly?"

"Haven't met anyone who wasn't, really." Well, she had, but she stayed away from them. "And I—I know you're not a big fan of his family, but I'm—erm… I'm friends with Scorpius Malfoy. He's really nice and sweet and polite, there's nothing bad about him, I promise," she added quickly before Harry could criticize her choice in friends.

"I never said there was anything bad about him. I'm sure he's a wonderful boy, Lils. Now I know I wasn't best friends with his father while I was at school, but I'm not going to stop you if you want to hang around with him." Harry's expression was genuine, and it comforted Lily to see that.

x

Years had passed, and Lily still held strong to her friendship with Scorpius, which had grown into something more over the past few months. No one but the two of them knew, and that was how they liked it to be. Lily knew her parents were fine with her befriending a Malfoy, but dating was a whole different story—one that she wasn't eager to open up to them.

"Why don't you want them to know, Lily?" Scorpius asked casually one day, as the two of them sat with their feet in the lake after class.

"It's not like your parents know, Scor. You and I both know you won't be telling them any time soon if you can help it."

"—And you and I both know why. My parents aren't like yours, Lils. They wouldn't get it."

"What's not to get," she whispered playfully.

"You know how they are. There's nothing wrong with them not knowing for as long as possible."

As much as Lily wanted to agree, she felt like this was wedging a wall in their relationship.

x

"I—erm. I sent my parents a letter earlier, telling them about—about us. They weren't too upset. I think they figured something like this would happen sooner or later."

"Really, Scor? Thank you. I really appreciate it. I'd actually just told my parents the other day, as well. It's not exactly the first shocking thing I've done since I started here, and they seemed fine about it." Lily looked closely into Scorpius' grey eyes. She caught the slight sense of fear that was overpowered by the bravery surging through his moonlight eyes.

It didn't seem like there was anything bad about Scorpius Malfoy in the long run, after all.

**x**

**For Kaia (a beautiful misfortune) for GGE. Also for the Represent that Character Challenge.**


End file.
